A well-documented team meeting, almost an hour in length, following last week’s loss to Castleford Tigers was of great value to Hull KR. Seeking to end any talk of negativity with a fresh approach for tonight’s match against St Helens, Rovers appear reinvigorated following something of a dressing down in the dressing room.

They say a week is a long time in rugby league and Tickle and company will be keen to produce a much-improved display tonight at the Totally Wicked Stadium. But there’s one niggling factor which continues to annoy the back-rower and that’s his team’s inconsistency.

Hull KR v Castleford Tigers

“When you turn up and perform well, and then you put in a bad show the week after, I don’t know the answer as to why it is,” he told the Mail. “We get questions from the coaching staff and we question it ourselves. But it happens. I’ve been in this situation many times.

“You’ve just got to put up and show a good response. We did that against Wigan after the Magic Weekend loss to Hull FC, and it’s the same this week.

“To explain why it happened, I think Castleford were the better team throughout and that first quarter we were on the back foot throughout.

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“We know what plays we can do to post on teams but when you do that much defending, cough up too much ball and make too many mistakes, it creates inconsistency throughout your game and your attack is unsure off the back of that.

“We’re confident that there are points in us but we’ve got to arrive mentally prepared and hang in there. That’s where it starts,” Tickle added. “We can’t drain ourselves of energy as we can score points if we stick to what we know.”

Hull KR's Danny Tickle against Widnes Vikings. (Image: Dave Greaves)

As for the bookies, they’re nailing on Saints for the win tonight. But try telling that to Tickle, who has enough experience within the game to tell you he couldn’t give two hoots about any talk from outside his own team’s bubble.

“I don’t look too much at the media to be honest. If you ask everybody else how you think it’s going to go, they’ll give you a similar answer but we’ve got to focus on ourselves,” he said.

“Each game is different, Saints had a good win last week but we were poor and we have to be better.”